GMU Graduate Industrial Organization I
Syllabus

Economics 844-007 (#14334), meets 7:20-10:00pm, Wednesday, during Spring 2014, in Carow Hall main room.

Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Assoc. Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://robinhanson.com)
Office Hours: Officially Wednesday 6-7p, but I'm usually in at Carow Hall 10B. Email or call ahead (703-993-2326) if you want to be sure I'll be in, of you want to meet somewhere besides my office.

Catalog Entry:

Econ 844 Industrial Organization and Public Policy I (3:3:0). Prerequisite: ECON 611 or permission of instructor. Structure of American industry and underlying determinants. Analysis of structure and conduct on industrial performance in light of theory and empirical evidence. Rational antitrust policy and analysis of impact on structure and performance.
Class Concept
By grad school, students know the drill cold: read assignments, hear lectures, do homework, and spit it all back on the exam. Problem is, just then the game changes from grades to papers; few will care about your grades, compared to your research papers, written and published. A research paper is not a term paper, and can't be dashed off the weekend before it is due. A research paper does not offer a broad overview; it says something specific and new, even if minor, that fits in a context of other research papers.

My class is designed for this transition. Instead of covering many topics briefly, we cover fewer deeper. The research paper is half your grade, and can be all if you want. You must choose a model paper early in the semeseter, write a referee report on it, and present it in class. Then meeting with me frequently one on one, we look for and then create some variation on that model paper.

Assignments: Lecture Schedule
WeekShy Lecture Topic Assignment
Jan 222,3 Overview and Lockin Look for Model Paper
Jan 294,5,6 Homogeneous Products & Free Entry
Feb 5 7 Differentiated Products Homework #1
Feb 12 Snow
Feb 1912 Quality and Regulation
Feb 2610 Networks and Standards
Mar 5 Paper Presentations
Mar 12 Spring Break
Mar 19 Midterm Exam
Mar 2611,16 Ads and Search
Apr 2 9 Research and Development
Apr 9 Incentives
Apr 16 Organization Information Systems
Apr 23 Slack and Review
Apr 30 No Class
May 9 Paper Presentations

Sources

On the web page, this links to a page of sources, most of which have links.
Suggested Texts:
Oz Shy, Industrial Organization, Theory and Applications, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-69179-5, 1996. (errata)
Jean Tirole, The Theory of Industrial Organization, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-20071-6, 1994.
Dennis Carlton and Jeffrey Perloff, Modern Industrial Organization, Forth Edition, Addison-Wesley, ISBN: 0-321-18023-2, 2005.

Disability Notice

If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at 703.993.2474. All academic accommodations must be arranged through that office.